Columnist Susan Snyder: LV business happy to be winging it

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005 | 8:17 a.m.

A wing from the 1930 biplane that took Gladys O'Donnell to victory in a race where she even beat Amelia Earhart has landed in a Henderson office building.

As a conference table.

"I don't know how on earth they could do that because the thing has to be 20-plus feet long," said Lorraine O'Donnell Doyle, daughter of the aviator who died in 1973.

Actually, it's 23 feet long. With its unveiling at 5 p.m. today, Desert Capital REIT, 1291 Galleria Drive, might have the only conference room in town measured by wingspan.

The Depression-era wing offers an air of stability and nostalgia, but also shows modern creativity -- all good characteristics for a real estate investment company, said Todd Parriot, Desert Capital's chief executive.

"It was a nice blend of what we are trying to accomplish," he said.

Besides, it looks cool.

In a telephone conversation from her California home Tuesday, Doyle said she is amazed any part of her mother's Waco Taperwing biplane survived 75 years. One former owner kept it "all squished" in storage before it finally ended up in the hangar of a Florida man who has restored it for flight.

"It hadn't been taken care of," Doyle said. "It should've been kept in a museum. It was a gorgeous plane in its prime."

The lower wing wasn't fit for flight restoration and was sold to MotoArt, a California company that creates practical objects from old planes and munitions. Parriot learned of MotoArt from a Discovery Channel feature and ended up with O'Donnell's wing when he called to order a conference table.

The wing's skin has been removed, exposing the rib-cage structure of Sitka spruce that is now encased in glass. A crane lifted it into place Monday.

O'Donnell's other belongings -- including helmet, goggles, trophies and her pilot's license signed by Orville Wright -- was lost in a 1978 fire at the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

Doyle said her father, Lloyd, did most of the flying for family trips. She was 8 when a storm forced her father to make an emergency landing in a farmer's Canadian pasture.

"We had to stay there three days, and I slept in a bed with someone who had the measles," she said. "I didn't think (flying) was exciting or great. It was just what we did."

Her mother didn't care much for piloting sight-seeing trips.

"She wanted to race," Doyle said. "When she flew, she wanted to be about her business."

In addition to first place in the 1930 women's air derby, O'Donnell took top honors at national air races in Cleveland.

"She out-flew all of the men," Doyle said. "This was a step forward for women. They had never dared to venture into a field such as (flying)."

Women only were allowed to compete in planes men felt "appropriate," which typically meant planes with less power.

"Still, women did it anyway because it was a step out of the kitchen," she said.

Doyle never inherited her parents' passion for piloting. Too many friends and relatives died in crashes during those early days of flight.

"That was just par for the course," she said. "You didn't even know whether you had a full gas tank unless you took off the lid and looked in."